Grow Your Own Vegetables

If you've never grown vegetables before, why not start with a few
simple ones to discover how rewarding it can be to feed yourself, friends & family from your own garden.

If you grow your own vegetables you will know that they have not come into contact with chemical fertilisers, which are not good for you, the environment, & especially Bees who are important polinators. You will know that your vegetables are 100% organic because you will have been responsible for them from seed to plate.

This is quick guide to get you started. We have also created a separate guide to download for each vegetable listed below.

A few things to consider to get you started ...

Before you start planting, sketch a rough plan of where you are going to plant each vegetable in your garden. This is our Veg. Patch plan. We're growing ...

Potatoes (to avoid disease, remember not to plant them in the same place every year)

Runner Beans (on an A frame)

Carrots (in a sandy-soiled, raised bed)

Leeks

Tomatoes (against a sunny wall)

Salad (in an old Whisky Barrel)

A selection of Herbs

Marigolds (as a companion plant for tomatoes)

You can design your own Veg Patch however you like

You may want to plant some companion plants to protect your vegetables from garden pests. Here are a few that are good for tomatoes...

Marigolds, repels most pests

Chives, repels aphids

Basil, repels pests & improves polination

You will need to consider how you will stop slugs feasting on your vegetables. It is frustrating to spend time planting seeds and nurturing seedlings just to have some big, old slug come along & eat the lot. We do a couple of things that seem to work for us. We sprinkle organic slug pellets around young plants. If the slugs are persistent, we sprinkle a few times throughout the season. We have also planted our salad in an old whisky barrel, which seems to put the slugs off attacking our salad.

You may want to consider how you can attract solitary Bees to help with the pollination of your plants. Bees like lavender & borage, which are both easy to grow & have the added benefit that you can eat the borrage & use the lavender to make your house smell nice. You could also make or buy a solitary Bee house.

You will also need to decide where are you going to get your seeds from. We either Save Seeds from last year's crop or buy them from the Real Seed Co. Saving Seeds is more Eco friendly & it will keep your costs down. It is also really easy to do, you just need to ensure they don't get damp.

You will need to consider how you will ensure your soil has enough nutrients to allow your vegetables grow. We make our own compost from household food waste. Adding nettles to your compost can help it to break-down quicker as well as adding important nutrients. Dig the compost into the soil before planting. You can also add nutrients by digging in some ash from the fire & some horse manure at the end of the season.

Last but not least, you may want to make your Veg. Patch look pretty by planting some edible flowers. You can eat Marigolds, Pansies, Borage & Marigolds to name but a few.

Gardening involves a lot of trial & error, & will be different for each garden, so observe what happens each year & make notes ready for the following year of anything that went well or anything that was a disaster!